The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-06-21
Court reports, Chief Justice fancy

mo state is bound to abstain from
the passage OF any law which it may
deem necessary or advisable to guard
the health or morals of its citizens"
"And if any state deems the retail
and internal traffic in ardent spirits in
| furious to its citizens and calculated to
produce idlencss vice or dcbauchcry,
there Is nothing in the constitution of
the United States to prevent it from
regulating and restricting the traffic or
from prohibiting it altogether, if it
thinks proper. Upon that subject each
state must decide for itself"
"As Congress has made no regula-
ton on the subject, the traffic in the
article (gin manufactured in Massachu-
setts) may be lawfully regulated by the
state as soon as it is landed in its terri
tory New Hampshire) and tax i'm
posed on it, or a license required. or
the sale altogether prohibited, accord
ing to the policy which the state may
suppose to be its interest or its duty to
persue."
Judge Mclean of the same court
said
The acknowledged police power of
state extends often TO the destruction
of property
A nuisance may be abated; everything
prejudicial to the health or morals of
a city may be removed. Merchandise
from place where contagious dis
ease prevails, being liable to commune
cate the disease, may be excluded, and
in extreme cases may be thrown into
the sea. 1t is a power essential to self
preservation and exists necessarily in
every organized community"
ut is indeed the law of nature and
is possessed by man in his individual
capacity. He may resist that which
does him harm. whether he be assailed
by an assassin, or approached by poi
SON."
Judge Woodbury., of the same conrt.
said, referring to the power of a state
to abolish the liquor traffic;
at is conceded that the states may
exclude pestlence either to the body or
mind, shut out the plague or cholera,
and obscene paintings, lottery tickets
and convicts."
After the adoption of the fourteenth
amendment to the constitution of
the United States the whisky
men anxious to believe that that
amendment had put it beyond the
power of the state governments to reg
ulate them, again got the question be-
fore the United States Supreme Court;
contending that their traffic, or in mod
ern phrase elderly" was protected by
that amendment.
The 14th am endment reads:
mo state shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any state deprive any
person Of life, liberty or property with
out due process of law nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the law"
1t will be noted that this amendment
says no state shall deprive any citizen
of his liberty without due process of
law.
-prohibitionists assert that the
destruction of the liquor traffic in Tex
us will destroy the the liberty of the
citizens contrary to law. II they are
correct in this operation, it is the duty
of the Supreme Court to declare the
law unconstitutional and preserve lib
august tribunal coming up to the full
measure of this responsibility whenever
the occasion shall demand, and it has
already done so,
The whisky men of Iowa took the
question to the United States Supreme
Court, Us Wallace p. 1881 Judge
Miller of that court said:
"The weight of authority is over
whelming that no such immunity has
heretofore existed as would prevent
state legislatures from regulating and
even prohibiting the traffic in intoxicat-
ing drinks"
mo case has held that such law
was vo as violating the privileges or
immunities of citizens of state of the
| United States"
1.-The right to sell intoxicating liquors
| is not one of the rights growing out of
citizenship of the United States"
Judge Bradley of the same court said:
mo one has ever doubted that
| legislature may prohibit the vending of
articles deemed injurious to the safety
of society, provided it does not interfere
with the vested rights of property"
Life. liberty and property (Which
include the the pursuit of happincss,)
are sacred rights which the constitu-
ten of the United States guarantees to
its humbest citizen against aggressive
legislation whether national or local"
Mr. Woods IN his work upon Nuisanc-
es SAYS:
1.-The experience of all mankind con-
damns any occunatiOn that tamnarS